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The loss of Polaroid 55 PN film is devastating for me. There is no substitute material which I could use to work the way I have for almost 50 years. I may have to stop making new work using the materials and techniques I’ve refined over several decades unless (and I pray that) someone or some manufacturer — Fuji? Ilford? Freestyle’s sources? — sees the mutual value in creating a substitute film. . . . […]
Should the collection get dispersed via auction or other sales, then the potential for research into Polaroid photography diminishes immediately and dramatically. The collection as presently constituted has an obvious synergy on numerous levels: it embodies a history of creative use of a particular cluster of tools, materials, and processes over six decades; it shows how different picture-makers used the same medium and the same materials; it represents the tangible cumulative result of an unparalleled program of corporate support of the arts; and it reflects the curatorial and sponsorial decisions of a sequence of thoughtful figures empowered by Polaroid to subsidize production and gather the consequent output. . . . […]
I began to develop an idea for an exhibition to focus on, or “foreground,” hand-painted backdrops from around the world used by itinerant and studio photographers in their portrait work. In addition, the photographs made by these photographers were to be displayed along with the backdrops. When I was coordinating the Exhibitions Program at Visual Studies Workshop (1987-1997) I was provided the freedom and encouragement to develop this idea. I began to more thoroughly research what I perceived to be a global, pervasive, but somewhat overlooked phenomenon in the history of photography; and the project grew and evolved. […]
If I had not have the support of the lab people at Polaroid I never would have been able to work as a fine-art photographer. I simply did not make enough money to work without that support. I remember dancing with joy when a package of film arrived in the mail. Sometimes they would send me a case of it at the end of the year when they had extra. These were not the heads of the art sections or the big advertising gurus who were in any way helping me. These were the guys in the labs who liked what I was doing and decided to support someone who was working at the edge of possibility using their material to do that. […]
To my surprise, I’ve ended up appreciating this film. It’s distant enough in time to take a measured, meditative look at this cultural moment. The Culture Wars constituted one of the rare moments in American history in which photographs and photography took center stage in the national consciousness. It was the medium’s most “teachable moment” to date. If I wanted to take a class of students back to that moment, to teach it myself again today some two decades down the line, I might well start with this movie. […]
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 SPJ Research Award 2014 Thought for the Day Ignorance is a condition; dumbness is a commitment.
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SPJ Research Award 2014
Polaroid Collection: Update 1
Should the collection get dispersed via auction or other sales, then the potential for research into Polaroid photography diminishes immediately and dramatically. The collection as presently constituted has an obvious synergy on numerous levels: it embodies a history of creative use of a particular cluster of tools, materials, and processes over six decades; it shows how different picture-makers used the same medium and the same materials; it represents the tangible cumulative result of an unparalleled program of corporate support of the arts; and it reflects the curatorial and sponsorial decisions of a sequence of thoughtful figures empowered by Polaroid to subsidize production and gather the consequent output. . . . […]